Developing Nations Press Climate and Debt Relief at G20 Summit

At the G20 summit in Johannesburg—the first hosted on African soil—developing nations intensified calls for stronger climate-finance commitments and meaningful debt-relief mechanisms, citing the mounting strain of climate-related shocks and high sovereign-debt servicing costs.

Leaders from Africa, South Asia and the small-island states argued that existing financing channels remain far too limited, noting that climate-finance flows are still well below the long-promised $100 billion per year while many vulnerable economies now spend more on interest payments than on health or education. Several delegations warned that rising borrowing costs, coupled with extreme-weather damages, are pushing countries toward a structural solvency trap.

The summit’s theme of “Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability” highlighted growing frustration at the slow pace of multilateral reform, while the absence of the United States—boycotting over geopolitical concerns—raised doubts about whether any collective framework can gain traction without full participation from major creditors. As debt vulnerabilities deepen across the Global South and climate impacts intensify, the Johannesburg meetings underscored the widening gap between developing-country urgencies and the capacity of the current global financial architecture to respond.